Hello everyone. I wanted to give Consecrated Path a try as a clear skill to supplement Guffin's BF build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2144900/page/1. However, once I reached maps I realized that CP was strong enough to work as both a single target and clear skill, I swapped over completely.

PoB for my level 82 character with ~60c spent 2 days into the league (9/4/2018): https://pastebin.com/9VPGSUDK. Currently am breezing through T8/T9 maps; the build feels great despite my cheap gear.

PoB with excellent gear to simulate top-end performance: https://pastebin.com/mz0uBt2Y
PoB is missing CP's 20% more modifier so the actual PoB DPS should be a little above 2.7m. This does not include the extra DPS your Warchiefs provide which brings the grand total upwards of 3.4m DPS. This character's gear is obviously very good, but it is meant to give an idea of something to work towards. With ~10 exalts it is very easy to reach upwards of 1.75m DPS with more than 6k life.

I started this build with leveling uniques and a starting budget of ~30c. Therefore, I cannot say with 100% certainty that this is a good league starter. I imagine it would be fine as a league starter but I don't want to make any statements without evidence.

Build Concept

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Consecrated path is essentially a more controllable flicker strike with built in conversion, Consecrated Ground, and AoE. We take advantage of this by converting 90% of the damage to elemental and scaling generic physical and elemental damage as well as attack speed. Coupled with the new Vaal Ancestral Warchief, and the result is a fast, fun skill with excellent clear speed and decent single target.

Pros

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+ Great clear speed
+ Good survivability from leech + evasion + high life total
+ Perfect for Delves; CP destroys linear maps and overleech makes exploring dark areas a breeze
+ Clear and single target in one skill
+ Doesn't require expensive gear to get rolling
+ Scales well with high currency
+ Flexible and generic; can use a multitude of skills
+ Fun to play

Cons

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- Is melee and cannot facetank
- Single target is not as potent as skills like BF or DS
- Flicker-strike-esque playstyle is not for everyone
- Relies on Ancestral Warchief/Vaal Ancestral Warchief for single target at lower gear levels
- Endgame/BiS gear is extremely expensive
- Evasion can be unreliable and can lead to unexpected deaths - PROBABLY NOT HC VIABLE

Gem Links

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Clear + Single Target Consecrated Path - Melee Physical Damage - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Ruthless - Elemental Focus
Your 6th link is dependent on your build/situation. Maim, Increased Critical Strikes or Concentrated Effect are all good. Damage on Full Life is also an option depending on the content you are doing.

Supplementary Clear + Single Target Vaal Ancestral Warchief - Melee Physical Damage - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Ruthless
The new Vaal AW is busted and will help your clear speed greatly if you need it as well as being a big boost to ST. Concentrated Effect is also a viable alternative here.

Curse + Power Charge on CritOrb of Storms - Curse on Hit - Elemental Weakness - Power Charge on Crit
This setup gives us our Power Charge generation in single target situations and curse application. This setup is not used while clearing; only against bosses.

***NOTE ABOUT GEM SOCKETS***
Because we use Tombfists we end up being a little starved for sockets;
- 6-link goes in Body Armour
- 4-link AW goes in Helm
- 4-link Curse setup goes in Boots
- 3 gem buffs go in one weapon and the 4th buff gem goes in our Tombfists.
This leaves 1 open socket in our Tombifsts and a 3-link in our 2nd weapon.

Personal Preferences
Your last few open sockets can be used however you choose. I would suggest a Cast When Damage Taken setup with Immortal Call coupled with Phase Run or Frostbomb. You may also use a Leap Slam, Faster Attacks, Fortify set up.

Ascendancy, Bandits, Leveling and Passive Tree

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Ascendancy
We take the generic Slayer/Raider for our ascendancy. Slayer gives us a nice mix of survivabiliy via leech as well as general damage. Raider gives us frenzy charge uptime, generic damage as well as evade chance. Pathfinder is also a viable option though you will need to generate frenzy charges and onslaught elsewhere on your character. Pickup the Slayer Ascendancy first and then Raider and finally the Ranger start.

Conc Path is a flexible skill and there are plenty of other ascendancies that can utilize it well. Champion, Juggernaut, Chieftain and Pathfinder are just a couple examples.

Bandits & Tree
You may choose to kill Alira or kill all.

This is the final tree: www.poeurl.com/b4gt.
Place the Might of the Meek and Unnatural Talent jewels in the center three jewel sockets. Make alterations to this tree as you see fit. Use PoB to find the most optimal tree for your character; this tree may not be perfect for you it is simply a guideline!

Don't pick up the Winter Spirit cluster until you have the Primeval Force and Forces of Nature clusters as well as at least a 4-link. Don't take Vaal Pact until you have enough leech to make it worthwhile.

Again these trees are a general baseline; leveling experiences are wildly different. I can't know if you have leveling uniques or are starting from scratch completely. If you feel squishy make your way to the life wheel early - if you need damage grab the sword or EDWA clusters early.

Level with Sunder until you can purchase CP.

Tabula, Goldrim, Wanderlust, Blackheart and The Princess are all great leveling uniques. Use PoB's Sort by DPS feature to find the best uniques at any stage in the leveling process.

Gear

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I'm still unsure of where I want to go gearwise with this character as it is a WIP. Since we are scaling this as a generic Phys to Ele character, the gearing will likely be equally generic. Use Path of Building to determine what will be best for you.Weapon

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For your mainhand you will want a high AS, high pDPS sword.
Since CP uses only our mainhand, stat sticks are ideal for our offhand. Gain Physical as extra % of elemental damage is ideal. Additionally look for Crit Multi or Elemental Penetration on your stat sticks.

Helmet

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A rare with high life, accuracy and resists is what you should be looking for. You could also pick up a +2 to socketed Minion gems helm and place your Herald of Purity in there for even more damage.
As always, uniques like Starkonja's, Devoto's and Lightpoacher are all viable.

Body Armour

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Any of the following are great.
- Belly of the Beast
- Loreweave
- Elder Chest w/ +% Crit Chance

Amulet

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A rare amulet with high life and several damage mods will be ideal. Look for EDWA, Crit Multi, added Phys to attacks, gain % of physical damage as extra elemental damage and accuracy. Resists are good here too.

Rings

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Steel Rings are the ideal base. Opal rings are alright as well. Any rare ring with high life and a combination of resists, added Phys to attacks and EDWA is good.

Gloves

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Two socket Tombfist or rare gloves with high life, resists and AS. Added Phys to attacks, accuracy and melee damage is also good here too, though life/resists/AS is higher priority.

Belt

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Stygian or leather belt with high life, resists and EDWA. Flask modifiers can also be worth looking for, but are lower priority.

Boots

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Two socket Bubonic Trail or rare boots with high life, resists and movespeed. Note that we do not run very much with this build so do not worry if you cannot get 30% MS boots.

In most maps we will not be running very often so a quicksilver isn't strictly necessary. Play with and without to see what you like best.

Jewels

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We use three Might of the Meeks at the Scion start. These will give great DPS as well as a lot of life and resists. You may choose to use an Unnatural Talent in place of one of the MotM. For the rest of our jewel sockets rares with a wide array of damage mods are good. Here is a trade search that is a good starting point: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Delve/ErdRozf5
A Hatred Watcher's Eye is also an option, albeit it will be much more expensive than the other options.

( I die like a noob because i thought i shatter enough corpses to not die to that Strongbox - yet another wrong decision :) )

I feel like i need to change some things to the build to get it to endgame but i think it is totally viable!

Greetings,
Chris

Final Thoughts
This is my first time making a guide so any advice on the guide formatting or the build itself is greatly appreciated. Since the skill is relatively new, there may be some more optimal set ups out there so let me know if you've found something better and I'll do my best to keep this up-to-date.

I feel it's necessary that I give credit to McGuffin's Bladeflurry guide as I lifted a lot of those concepts in creating this guide.

If you have any questions please reply to this post. Thanks for reading!

This is my first time making a guide so any advice on the guide formatting or the build itself is greatly appreciated. Since the skill is relatively new, there may be some more optimal set ups out there so let me know if you've found something better and I'll do my best to keep this up-to-date.

I feel it's necessary that I give credit to McGuffin's Bladeflurry guide as I lifted a lot of those concepts in creating this guide.

If there is enough desire I will try and put out some videos once I reach some higher level maps/delves. If you have any questions please reply to this post. Thanks for reading!

Hey hey, it's always cool to see people branch out and explore new Stuff :D
Especially new Skills etc.
I'd definitely be interested in Videos, and am gonna look over the Guide another day to see if I can come up with any ideas/recommendations.

Hey hey, it's always cool to see people branch out and explore new Stuff :D
Especially new Skills etc.
I'd definitely be interested in Videos, and am gonna look over the Guide another day to see if I can come up with any ideas/recommendations.

Gl on the Build mate, the Thread looks good so far :)

Thanks for checking it out! Appreciate any help you can provide. I posted a (kinda bad quality) video, but if you're curious about how consecrated path feels I suggest taking a look.

How are you handling the separate links setup with the Curse on Hit + Orb of Storms. Do you have a second pair of boots you use with CWDT or something when not on single target and just swap them as appropriate?

How are you handling the separate links setup with the Curse on Hit + Orb of Storms. Do you have a second pair of boots you use with CWDT or something when not on single target and just swap them as appropriate?

You could choose to do that. I currently don't run a CWDT setup as I haven't really felt its necessary. The build feels extremely safe and I haven't really been at any risk of dying the past few levels. However there is room to run a CWDT setup in the build: